Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Structure-Guided Design and Development of Novel Cyclophilin A Inhibitors and Ganoderiol-F Derivatives: An In-Silico Approach
Published on: June 23, 2026
PairMap2: A Web Application for Intermediate-Molecule Insertion in Relative Binding Free Energy Calculations
1Department of Computer Science, School of Computing, Institute of Science Tokyo, Yokohama, Japan.
PairMap2 is a web tool that speeds up relative binding free energy calculations by improving intermediate-molecule insertion. This computational chemistry application helps predict ligand binding more reliably and efficiently.
Area of Science:
- Computational chemistry
- Molecular modeling
- Drug discovery
Background:
- Relative binding free energy calculations are crucial for drug discovery.
- Challenges exist in predicting binding affinities for structurally distant ligands due to poor convergence.
- Intermediate-molecule insertion methods aim to improve the reliability of these calculations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce PairMap2, a web-based application for assessing intermediate-molecule insertion in free energy calculations.
- To enhance the PairMap workflow for improved efficiency and accessibility.
- To facilitate the analysis of perturbation networks and atom mappings for multiligand systems.
Main Methods:
- Reimplementation of the PairMap intermediate-insertion workflow as a browser-based tool.
- Support for two-molecule path analysis and multiligand perturbation-map construction.
- Visualization of perturbation networks, generated intermediates, and maximum common substructure-based atom mappings.
Main Results:
- PairMap2 demonstrated faster completion times in 8 out of 9 benchmark cases compared to the original PairMap.
- Achieved an approximately 19.6-fold speedup for a low-similarity transformation.
- Enabled efficient assessment of intermediate insertion without local environment setup.
Conclusions:
- PairMap2 provides a user-friendly and efficient platform for computational chemists.
- The tool improves the reliability and speed of relative binding free energy calculations.
- Facilitates the analysis of complex ligand transformations in drug discovery pipelines.
More Related Videos
08:49Incorporating Target Protein Structure Flexibility and Dynamics in Computational Drug Discovery Using Ensemble-Based Docking Analysis
Published on: June 20, 2025
06:50Computational Prediction of Amino Acid Preferences of Potentially Multispecific Peptide-Binding Domains Involved in Protein-Protein Interactions
Published on: January 26, 2024
Related Concept Videos
The Equilibrium Binding Constant and Binding Strength
Ligand Binding Sites
Protein-ligand interactions are quite specific; even though numerous potential ligands surround a cellular protein at any given time, only a particular ligand can bind to that protein. Moreover, a ligand binds only to a dedicated area on the surface of the protein, known as the...
Conserved Binding Sites
Binding sites are often located in large pockets, and if their location on a protein’s surface is unknown, it can be predicted using various approaches. The energetic method computationally analyses the...